Credit for employment

Mark Duclos in a recent letter (“Going great with Trump,” June 16, 2018) stated that during the first 500 days of the Trump presidency the unemployment rate is at an all-time low of 5.9 percent. According to the Economist, a conservative business magazine that was started in 1847, the unemployment rate when Obama became president was 10 percent. After the completion of his second term it had dropped to 4.9 percent. He of course did not get credit for that reduction. I have to agree that presidents are not the reason for employment rates.

In addition, the same magazine has indicated that the northern European countries including the Scandinavian ones plus Switzerland have unemployment rates that are just as low or even lower. The world economy for the most part is doing very well after what economists have said was a recession.

Time will tell what will happen after the tariffs go into effect. I know that Washington state farmers are very concerned.

John Beaton

Spokane